Area Utilities Poised To Get Services Up And Running

September 17, 2003|By NOVELDA SOMMERS Daily Press

While many Hampton Roads residents braced for Hurricane Isabel's arrival, the utilities that keep lights on, water heated, the Internet accessible and phones running are readying for the post-storm clean-up.

Utility crews from five southeastern energy companies left their home states Tuesday and began driving toward Virginia to help Dominion Virginia Power. They are expected to arrive today at staging areas throughout Dominion's area.

With the extra help, Dominion expects to have 7,000 workers available to help respond to the outages anticipated when Isabel's strong winds and heavy rains move through the area.

"We are expecting widespread and extended outages, and we want to communicate that to our customers," said Irene Cimino, spokeswoman.

The company urged customers who rely on electricity for medical needs to move to less-threatened areas inland. Verizon Communications and Cox Communications made plans to work with Dominion to get the power back on so they can work on repairing their services.

"Obviously the restoration of electrical power will be of primary importance," said Thom Prevette, Cox spokesman. "Dominion has to be restored before our systems can be 100 percent."

Cox has spent millions over the past several years on emergency generators and batteries for its offices throughout Hampton Roads, he said. Field engineers will weather the storm in Cox's offices and be dispatched as soon as it's safe.

The company also had workers from throughout New England on standby, as well as contractors who were ready to travel to the area to help with repairs.

Likewise, Verizon was setting up generators and preparing to move employees from other parts of the country to help workers here. Employees were sandbagging 25 offices, including those that are that are "switching centers," which are basically massive computers that route calls, said spokesman Paul Miller.

If one got soaked, he said, "that could be devastating." Phone service would be knocked out while workers repaired the computer.

Virginia Natural Gas will have crews placed at police and fire stations around Hampton Roads for the next few days to ensure a fast response to possible gas leaks, said spokesman Jose Simon.

The Peninsula's water supply is in good shape, said Newport News Waterworks spokeswoman Lee Ann Hartmann said.

Workers have been filling the area's water towers and storage tanks to their collective 25 million gallon capacity, Hartmann said.

That's only enough to last about half a day. Residents here use about 45 million gallons a day. However, the Harwood's Mill water treatment plant is equipped with generators to keep it running, even if the Lee Hall plant is knocked out.

"Our disaster plan was developed years ago," Hartmann said. "It has changed some, but the basics are always there. We know what to do."

Novelda Sommers can be reached at 247-4767 or by e-mail at nsommers@dailypress.com